Abide

[0:00] The following message is given by Walt Alexander, lead pastor of Trinity Grace Church in Athens, Tennessee.! For more information about Trinity Grace, please visit us at TrinityGraceAthens.com.

[0:14] ! Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away.

[0:38] And every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.

[0:53] Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.

[1:11] I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit.

[1:21] For apart from me, you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he's thrown away like a branch and withers.

[1:33] And the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you.

[1:48] By this, my Father is glorified that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.

[1:59] This is the word of the Lord. Besides the names of God and words to describe the work of Jesus Christ, there may be no more important word in our Bibles than the word in.

[2:18] It's such a small word, just two letters, but it carries the weight often of precious eternal realities.

[2:30] If we were to set up all the weight that this little word carries in our Bible, we could easily amass a year's worth of sermons. It's a preposition which we use all the time to describe the way people or things relate, the way people relate to things.

[2:50] We talk about being in the know, not merely knowing about someone or something, but truly knowing them or truly knowing it.

[3:00] We wink about being in on some secret or confidential information. Something as simple as being in on the latest teenage crush.

[3:11] Did you hear who's crushing on who? Or being in on confidential information that threatens a nation's security.

[3:22] Whatever it is, those who are in on it are on the inside. The ones with special access to the right people with the right permissions.

[3:34] The right badge, so to speak. And sometimes when we're no longer on the inside, when a friendship untangles or a misstep, leaves us in the marital doghouse, we are on the outs.

[3:49] Making clear we're no longer in like we once were in. The preposition in describes the way people relate, marked by incorporation, inclusion, and intimacy.

[4:04] And it's no less true in our Bible. The New Testament uses this word again and again to carry the freight of eternal realities. When it says, In Adam all die, but in Christ all are made alive.

[4:21] If anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation. The old is gone. The new has come. All this is from God. There is now no more condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

[4:37] The precious reality behind this little word, in, is what theologians call union with Christ. Wonderfully, union with Christ is objective and representative.

[4:50] That's what it's talking about. He died in our place, paying the penalty for our sins so that by trusting him, we have full and final forgiveness.

[5:00] That's why it says there is no more. Now, no more condemnation for those who are in Christ. But union with Christ is not just objective and representative out there.

[5:13] It's wonderfully subjective, living, and organic. The scripture says, by virtue of salvation, we're one with the Lord and the Spirit. It stretches the bounds of language as Jesus does here.

[5:27] It says, the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you and raised you from the dead, such that Christ is in you. As we continue our study of the last words of Jesus, this is all that Jesus said on the night he was betrayed.

[5:49] He turns to talk about this living and organic union with him. He says, I am the vine, you are the branch. Words so familiar, we could recite them by heart.

[6:02] So much of what he said so far is saying, remember, I'm going away. We'll be reunited one day soon. That's what he said. But now he turns to focus on how they must live now.

[6:16] How they must bear fruit. How they must pray. How they must witness. How they must face opposition that's coming to them by virtue of what they believe about him.

[6:29] And he's saying, you must not live as you used to. Everything has changed now. You belong to me. You belong to Christ.

[6:40] The same is true of us. Often, you know, when we think about union with Christ, we praise God that our past life has been forgiven. That he's canceled the record of debt that stood against us with his legal demand.

[6:55] And that is a wonderfully true thing. But we do not think about union with Christ in the present and in the future. Our union with Christ has not just transformed our past.

[7:07] It's transformed our present and our future because we're joined to Christ. His life and power are available to us in the present and promised to be enough for the future.

[7:18] That's what Jesus begins to talk about here. That's what Paul is talking about in Philippians 4 when he says, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

[7:28] My strength is no longer my confidence. My weakness no longer my limitation. My wisdom no longer my rest. My comfort is no longer my security. I am in Christ and his resources are limitless.

[7:42] One of my favorite theologians says it like this. What is it that binds past and present and future together in the life of faith and in the hope of glory?

[7:53] Why can the believer have patience in the perplexities and adversities of the present? Why can he have confidence and assurance with reference to the future and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God?

[8:06] It is because he cannot think of past, present, or future apart from union with Christ. Wonderfully, Christ is your past.

[8:20] Wonderfully, he's your present and your future. Where we're going is live now in the confidence that your past, present, and future are secure in Christ. Live now in the confidence that your past, present, and future are secure in Christ.

[8:33] Not merely out there, but secure in all the power he gives you to walk it out. So we're going to walk through this metaphor in three points. The first is the vine. The first is the vine.

[8:47] At the beginning of our text, there's a shift in scene. Do you remember what we've said the past couple weeks? Jesus was in the upper room with his disciples to enjoy the Passover meal.

[8:59] And that's where he washed their feet and began to speak. At the end of chapter 14, he says, Rise, let us go from here. He begins, we believe, making his way to the Garden of Gethsemane, where he will be betrayed.

[9:14] East of Jerusalem, perhaps walking through the streets as he begins to talk. The change in scenery begins with a change in the subject of Jesus' teaching.

[9:27] An abrupt change. He says, I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine dresser. It's not just a change in what Jesus is talking about.

[9:38] It's a change in how he is talking. He says, I am a vine. And he's not planning to grow branches. He's using the vine and the branches and the fruit as an extended metaphor for what he has done in binding his believers to himself.

[9:58] It's a word from God for us today. Stories about vine were quite popular and quite common in those days. It's no surprise that our Lord shares several parables about vines and vineyards.

[10:11] You think about the master at the vineyard and sent the tenant to check on it. You know, these metaphors were quite familiar. So what is the significance about this vine on this night?

[10:22] Why does he begin talking about a vine? It could be, and some people say, that the disciples have already made their way to the olive grove that is the Garden of Gethsemane.

[10:36] Perhaps like a good teacher, Jesus is pointing out the object lesson that's in the olive grove of the vine from which the olives come. That could be true, but I think it's more likely that the background of vines and vineyards is found in the Old Testament.

[10:54] Again and again, John has been trying to show us how Jesus is transforming all that we understand about the Old Testament. The shadows that we saw in the Old Testament give way to light in the New Testament.

[11:09] In the Old Testament, in several places, or more than several places, a handful of places, the vine symbolizes the people of Israel. So Jeremiah speaks of the choice vine of the Lord several times.

[11:26] Ezekiel and Hosea do as well. Isaiah 5 compares the Lord to the vine dresser. He sets up his vineyard on the top of a hill in which he dug and cleared of stones, planted the choice vineyard, prepared for the fruit, and set out a place for him to watch and wait for the harvest.

[11:49] The idea is the vine and the vineyard are a picture of what God has done with this people of Israel. He's drawn them out of Egypt, rescued them from Pharaoh.

[12:00] Pharaoh, he drove out the nations and planted them in the land and called them to be fruitful. Now, again and again, these references to vineyards point out the privileged place of Israel, chosen among all the people of the earth, set apart his chosen race.

[12:21] Just like we looked at in 1 Peter 2, the privileged place of being on the land where he planted it. But each of these passages, every one of these passages, stressed the failure of Israel to do what God had called them to do, to bear good fruit and the judgment that is now coming.

[12:47] Look in Isaiah 5, which we have for you. It says, He that is the Lord dug it and cleared it of stones, planted it with choice vines. He built a watchtower in the midst of it and hewed out a wine vat in it, and He looked for it to yield grapes.

[13:06] But it yielded wild grapes. It's not talking about a unique variety. It's talking about bad grapes. It didn't yield what it needed to yield, what it was supposed to yield.

[13:22] And yet here on this night, with all that Old Testament background, the Lord says, I am the true vine. We have to understand what is going on here.

[13:35] This is the last of seven I am statements. I'm the way, the truth, and the life. I am the good shepherd and so on. I'm the resurrection and the life. This is the last one.

[13:46] He said, I am the temple. I'm the way, the truth, and the life. Jesus says here, I am the vine. What he's saying is the real people of God are not those born into the right family or with the right background.

[14:00] They're not those who can trace their family line back to Abraham or those with the right family tree. The real people of God are those who are in this vine.

[14:12] He's saying something incredibly radical. The vine of the Lord Jesus Christ who belonged to Him. Notice He says, I am the true vine.

[14:26] Where Israel failed to obey, Jesus comes to obey perfectly. To fulfill where Israel failed and so to keep God's purposes marching forward.

[14:43] And the article is intentional as well. I am the true vine. There is only one true vine. There's only one source of everlasting life.

[14:54] There is only one way to the Father. The way the scriptures present the salvation. Salvation is not a mountain summit that many paths make their way up.

[15:07] Salvation is a story that has come to us. And all the paths must come through Jesus Christ. There is no way to the Father except through Him.

[15:18] So the statement is incredibly profound. In the ears of all of these men trained in the Jewish religion, they would have immediately thought of Isaiah 5, perhaps Psalm 80, and thought of this vine.

[15:31] And he's transforming it. In the young adult book from the mixed up files of Mrs. Basil Frankweiler, young Claudia appears to Miss Frankweiler as to the value of continuing to learn.

[15:47] She's talking about, to her teacher, about wanting to learn, continuing to learn, learning a new thing every day. That sounds like a great idea. But the wise elderly, Miss Frankweiler says, No, I don't agree with that.

[16:01] I think you should learn, of course. Some days you must learn a great deal. But you should also have the days when you allow what is already in you to swell up inside of you until it touches everything.

[16:17] If you never take time to let that happen, you'll just accumulate facts, and they begin to rattle around inside of you. You can make noise with them, but never really feel anything with them.

[16:33] It's hollow. What's going on on this night? Jesus is gradually breaking out these things to His disciples. He's causing them to learn.

[16:43] What He's already told them in a number of different ways, to swell up within them so that they see what God is doing in Jesus Christ touches everything.

[16:56] What God is doing in Christ touches everything. All that God has done among the people of Israel from the beginning finds its fulfillment in Jesus Christ.

[17:06] Jesus is the true temple, as He tells us in John 2, not the tabernacle, not the temple that was destroyed by the Babylonians and the Assyrians, not the temple that was rebuilt by Nehemiah, a true temple, God's temple, a temple made in the heavens.

[17:23] He said, I am the true bread from heaven. I'm not the manna that came down for a day. I am the true bread. Whoever eats from me will be satisfied. He says, I am the living water.

[17:35] Whoever drinks from it will have waters welling up to eternal life. I am the good shepherd. I am the life that conquers sin and death. What the disciples are learning is that Jesus touches and transforms everything they've learned before.

[17:50] And all that has come before us pointing to reality that there is salvation in Him and in no one else. There's salvation in Jesus Christ and in no one else.

[18:05] John Calvin helpfully says, the reformer helpfully says, how do we receive these benefits which the Father bestowed on His only begotten Son? Not for Christ's own private use, but that He might enrich poor and needy men.

[18:21] First, we must understand that as long as Christ remains outside of us and we are separated from Him, all that He has suffered and done for the salvation of the human race remains useless and of no value to us.

[18:40] Therefore, to share with us what He has received from the Father, He had to become ours and to dwell within us. As long as Christ remains outside of us, all that He's done is useless.

[18:56] It's a wonderful call. What He's saying, I am the true vine. It's a call to come and find yourself in Him. As long as Jesus is just a general Savior, a general good man, a general great prophet, all that He's done is useless.

[19:14] You must come and find yourself in Him and He in you. The crucial question this morning is not, who is your family? The crucial question is not, what is your background?

[19:26] The crucial question is not, do you go to church? I hope you do. The crucial question is not, have you been baptized? The crucial question is, what do you believe about Jesus?

[19:38] And are you in Him? If you're not in Him, I offer you the gospel of Jesus Christ. Come to me, all you weary and heavy laden, I will give you rest.

[19:50] The great rest you need is not from your busy schedule. The great rest you need is from the fear of future wrath that is deserved because of your many sins and mine as well.

[20:03] Come to Jesus Christ and rest in Him. He is the vine. Point two, the branches, the branches. If Jesus is the vine, who are the branches?

[20:19] We're just breaking this metaphor out, trying to explain it, help us understand it and what He's saying here. He continues after talking about the vine to the branches. He says, verse two, every branch in me that does not bear fruit, He takes away.

[20:33] Every branch that does bear fruit, He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Down in verse five, I am the vine, you're the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit.

[20:45] The metaphor is clear enough, right? The branches of the vine get their life from the vine. A branch separated from a vine becomes useless.

[20:56] It withers away, becomes brittle, it breaks off in a storm, right? But a branch that's attached to the vine is alive. There's a spiritual reality behind these verses and they do stretch the bounds of language, as I've already said, but I hope we'll get at it.

[21:16] We are not only in Jesus, Jesus is in us. What? How does that work, you know?

[21:26] Jesus has already said, look in, and if you've got your Bibles open, you can look in John 14, 20, Jesus has said that in that day, you will know that I am in the Father, and you in me, and I in you.

[21:38] So you'll know there's this wonderful indwelling that's going to happen on that day. I'm in the Father, Father, I am in you, you are in me, but Jesus says here that this is already true.

[21:50] Whoever abides in me and I then abide in him, they bear much fruit. Now that's a strange way to talk, but a vital spiritual reality.

[22:01] We don't only come, Jesus did not just come to dwell in us. We don't come to just dwell in Jesus, as he comes to dwell in us, this idea of mutual indwelling, this idea of a living relationship with Jesus Christ.

[22:19] Look at what Colossians 1 says it, to them, God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery. What is the mystery? Which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

[22:35] Christ in you. All the shadows pass away. The Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead gives life to your mortal body such that Christ is in you.

[22:48] The Lord Jesus Christ does not dwell in a temple made by men. He does not have a street address or a steeple. He is in you. If you're in him, he dwells in you.

[22:58] You are a temple of the Holy Spirit. And when you come together, there's just a lot of temples together to make a big capital T temple. That's what's happening on a Sunday morning. The Christ in you is magnified.

[23:12] Brother Lawrence stretching how far this can go. He says, Christ is within you. Seek him, not elsewhere. Now that sounds overly mystical.

[23:24] What he's talking about is don't seek his fulfillment in anything else because he's in you by the power of the gospel. Now the disciples must have thought, how can we make sure he's in us and we are in him?

[23:38] How can we make sure? Let's get this done tonight. Let's not have him go away before we don't get this done. Look at the way he answers. Every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes that it may bear much fruit.

[23:50] Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. He's saying, don't worry, you don't have to go anywhere or do anything.

[24:01] You're already in me through the word. Jesus told them that he's made them clean by the word just like Zechariah 3.

[24:13] It's pointing to the cleansing power of the word of God. Cleanse them. Resist Satan. Cleanse this person. That's what Jesus meant right after he washed the disciples' feet.

[24:26] He said to them, you don't need to have your whole body washed because you're already clean by the word. It's what he's been saying about the word all along.

[24:37] John 6, 63, it's the spirit who gives life. The flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.

[24:48] What that means is the word, it just shoots out. Paul says, 1 Timothy, the word of God is not bound. I might be in prison, but the word of God is not bound.

[24:58] It's just going everywhere. Colossians 1 says, it's bearing fruit throughout the world. That's what the word is doing right now this morning. Isn't it striking though that while Jesus mentions this very mystical thing, Christ in you, you in Christ, I in you, you in me, he makes clear that it comes to pass in a very unmystical way.

[25:21] How does it happen? By the word. Look at what he says. Verse 7, if you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it shall be done.

[25:42] The heart of Christianity is not an emotional experience, not a liver shiver, not a body full of tingles or paralyzing wonder. at the heart of Christianity are words. It's incredible.

[25:54] Words. A string of sound words that bring about fellowship with God and the power of the spirit. The spirit is not a lone ranger running around doling out experiences.

[26:07] The spirit comes through the word and the word ushers in the spirit. You want to be a spiritually full person, get in this book and you got it. The further and further we get away from the word, the further and further we get away from biblical Christianity and Jesus Christ.

[26:27] The living Jesus Christ. Take it up, read it. You know, we must remember just as a little bit of an aside, we live in the age of the ear, not the age of the eye.

[26:39] We as an American church are often told that what we need, we're not told it in just this language, but we can be led to believe. What we need is the next big thing. We need the next experience, the next hip program, the next conference, the next biblical diet.

[26:56] This diet is going to change you. Biblical fasting, rediscovered, whatever. What we most often need, though, are the ordinary means of grace.

[27:08] We need a local church where we can pray, read scripture, preach the gospel, share the sacraments, serve the poor, and love one another. The ordinary means of grace bring about the extraordinary privilege of walking with Jesus Christ in the world.

[27:26] I'm going to read a story from my friend, Mary Nell, about the blessing of the ordinary means of grace. I just clipped a couple paragraphs out of her testimony.

[27:39] She said, we started attending Trinity Grace at the end of 2021. We immediately felt something was different. It's a word.

[27:51] By the grace of God, we fell in love with Jesus. My husband and I had no idea what we were missing from our lives, but once the scales fell off our eyes, the run of the meal, ordinary life just wouldn't cut it.

[28:11] The sanctification ramped up, another way that feels, to levels I felt I couldn't imagine. I can easily compare it to John 15, how the Father prunes the vines in order to bear much fruit.

[28:28] It was a rough road. All this, we didn't know what God was doing. Suddenly, everything felt so unnatural.

[28:40] I was leaning heavily on the Lord while trying to undo and unwind the mangled mess of all the lies I used to believe about who she was as a woman, what she was called to do.

[28:53] During those early days of wrestling, I often felt like a crumbled heap on the floor. I could hardly put into words what I was feeling or processing. Lots of tears were shed and lots of questions were poured out to the Lord.

[29:06] I finally relinquished my death grip of control, pride, and selfishness and opened my hands fully to the Lord's will, what He had in store for my life.

[29:17] In 2022, I stepped away from my career and became a full-time stay-at-home mom. What's that word? Obviously, you don't have to be a stay-at-home mom to be a faithful mom.

[29:36] The Lord was putting His finger on it, though, for this mom. All the next year, I stumbled along the way while learning how to submit to Christ and my husband and God's beautiful design.

[29:48] We both started to feel out of place at our usual circle of friends. Our normal life felt unattractive and undesirable. What is that? What's she describing? The change of being made clean by the Word.

[30:04] Our entire life changed. I praise God for it. At the end of last year, Adam and I felt the Lord guiding us to be baptized another first. One Sunday, November 13, 2022, we were both baptized.

[30:18] We didn't choose the date, but it just so happened to be 15 years to the day of our first kiss. The Lord's got a sense of humor, too. What stands out, though, to me in that story, and praise God for it, is the ordinary means of grace.

[30:37] A bunch of imperfect people gathering for the Holy God and trying to walk it out in the fear of God. Never perfect.

[30:51] All you've got to do is react this afternoon. Never perfect. Never perfect. But blessed. Praise God.

[31:04] How do you know, though, if he comes by the Word, how do you know that he continues to dwell in you? The Lord would say, because he prunes you.

[31:16] Like all good vine dressers, this vine dresser cuts off the dry, weary, withered branches. But like all good vine dressers, this vine dresser cuts off the smaller living branches so that the vine and the branches begin to bear more fruit.

[31:33] He cuts off the branches that are alive. He cuts them off, though, so that they can bear much fruit, bear more fruit.

[31:47] Hebrews 12 says he disciplines those he loves. So he prunes those he loves. He changes plans, closes opportunities, withholds longings, takes away loved ones, leaves prayers unanswered, not because he doesn't love us, but because he does.

[32:07] No father worthy of the name disciplines the neighbor's child, but no father worthy of the name doesn't discipline his own.

[32:21] He doesn't want their life to run off into disaster. He disciplines those he loves. He does it for our good. Wonderfully, every adversity passes through his careful eye.

[32:34] Every loss is conformed to his good purpose. Every cutoff branch is by his design, regardless of how he feels. He doesn't waste any of it.

[32:44] The missionary Amy Carmichael commenting on this verse said, what a prodigal, what a great waste it appears to see scattered on the floor the bright green leaves and the bare stem bleeding in a hundred places from the sharp knife.

[33:01] Some of you have been cut lately. Feels like such a waste. What is going on? But with a tried and trusted husband there is not a random stroke in it all.

[33:18] Nothing cut away which it would not have been a loss to keep and a gain to lose. But you hear that again. Nothing is cut away which it would not have been a loss to keep and a gain to lose.

[33:30] What is he doing? He's working for your joy. The continued pruning proves we belong to him. It proves he's at work.

[33:44] Often when I'm out walking and praying I'll remind the Lord I didn't start this. You know I was in darkness came to UT as a freshman serving my flesh for three years and suddenly like scales fell from my eyes God opened my eyes to see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

[34:06] And so I'll just remind him I didn't start this so I'm not going to be the one that can finish it so come finish your work Lord. I feel like I've been pruned my arms and branches have been cut off but I'm trusting you to work.

[34:21] I'd rather be there than anywhere else in the world I can promise you that because if that one's cutting on me then there's hope. I wish I had more time point three the fruit point three the fruit the fruit if Jesus is the vine his branches or his disciples are the branches what is the fruit the word fruit appears ten times in this passage in this chapter appears ten times in the whole gospel of John but eight times in this chapter so eight of the ten occurrences appear right here the idea again the metaphor is clear enough I'm going to say it again the branches of the vine get their life from the vine the life of the vine flows through the branch the life that is inside the vine produces its fruit in the branch so the vine can only produce fruit through the branches and so it sends out its life through the branches to produce fruit all that the vine dresser does in planting and tending and some of you are better in the garden than I am planting and tending and watering and pruning all of it is for the purpose of fruit the Lord the vine dresser is trying to produce more fruit the vine is produced or the fruit of the vine is produced in the branch and the spiritual reality is the same when we're joined to Christ his power and his risen life began to transform us he's trying to produce fruit in our life trying to come by his power to transform our normal into something extraordinary his strength becomes our confidence his wisdom becomes our peace his supply becomes our sufficiency his power through our weakness becomes our boast the life of the vine comes out through the branches through his disciples transforming us to make us more like

[36:23] Jesus Christ to beautify us and make us more fruitful I mean the obvious needs to be stated you can change that's what's going on here there is no hope for change outside of Christianity go ahead and do your personality test and stay in the lane for life I hate those tests because I'm trying to change I'm not trying to be an 8 or whatever it is an Enneagram I'm trying to be transformed by the power of the gospel I don't want to be the same wall tomorrow that I was I want to be different and that's what God is doing he's changing your life if you don't know about this I want you to get in on this wonderfully the Christian life is not fail repent repeat fail repent repeat the Christian life is new life put to death the deeds of the body and you will live that's what he's after and his power is unlimited you might feel cornered he's eternal same yesterday today forever no matter how much he's poured out yesterday last year oh he's got so much more the fruit seems to be the fruit of discipleship the idea is that you bind yourself to this vine and the fruit of discipleship flows out in your life look at verse 8 by this my father is glorified that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples the fruit is loving

[37:54] God and loving your neighbor and loving yourself less that's a good command to try to apply next year you know the fruit of the spirit of living on mission living more and more for Christ of depending on him more and more the idea is becoming more and more like him I remember in Acts 4 some said they were with the disciples they said they could tell they had been with Jesus but Jesus was raised from the dead and ascended to the father at that time but they could tell they had been with him why because their life their conduct their character had changed by the power of the gospel but why this emphasis upon fruit why this metaphor about the vine and the branches and the fruit and D.A. Carson helpfully says the transparent that's just smart guys way of saying the clear purpose is to insist that there are no true Christians without some measure of fruit fruitfulness is an infallible mark of true

[39:02] Christianity the transparent person is to insist that there are no true Christians without some measure of fruit fruitfulness is the infallible mark of true Christianity if there's no fruit there's no life if there's no life there's no Christianity do you see the branches therefore that are cut off that bear no fruit are cut off as we read several times it's a warning branches that don't bear fruit are cut off now can a branch that's in the vine of Jesus Christ be cast off later and destroyed can believers lose their salvation that's what people come sometimes wrestle with these verses every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away it's a hugely important question

[40:03] Jesus says though another chapter of John this is where a literal statement can help interpret a metaphor and it's application whoever comes to me I will never cast out no true believer who comes to Christ will ever be cast out but you know we asked the question because we had people that were running with us following Christ for a while that aren't any longer do you have any people on that list I do one thing though this passage is teaching us is the evidence of one's spiritual condition is more of what they do than of what they say you see someone's spiritual condition must not be determined by a one time decision but by long term fruitfulness that's what he's getting at a good tree bears good fruit a bad tree bears bad fruit when you plant something in the ground some of what we experience we make a decision for Christ we plant something in the ground we don't know what's legit we don't know whether that decision for Christ is legit well when you see the fruit you will know that's what

[41:23] Jesus said you'll know my disciples by their fruit fruit and so we should measure the spiritual condition of someone not by a one time decision but by their long term fruitfulness so what is the fruit in your life I'd be remissed if I didn't ask this question is there fruit in your life you may confess but is there fruit in your life 2 Corinthians says make your calling and election sure be sure you're sure that you're in him and there is fruit coming out because you need to be ready is there fruit of loving him and following him I pray so unbelievably the fruit of discipleship is what brings glory to God it's such a fascinating thing let's read that again look at verse 8 by this is my father glorified that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples the son is glorified in different parts of scripture glorify me with the glory

[42:44] I have for the foundation of the world Jesus prays in John 17 the father is glorified in the son that's not surprising when Jesus talks about the cross he talks about being glorified and the father being glorified but this is something different the son glorifies the father by filling his people with life and strength to follow him and bear much fruit there's a wonderful idea in which Jesus Christ in his incarnation in becoming man he can bear fruit for the glory of God as one man even though it's one God man but what he does through his resurrection and ascension through what he does by the power of the word is that he fills people all throughout the globe to come and follow him with the power that comes from him and to bear fruit in all of it to the glory of God in heaven just like he said they'll glorify me when they see your good works they'll glorify me and give glory to my father who is in heaven and so the heavens declare the glory of

[43:56] God but how much more does God glorify when people endure intense suffering with joy when former drunks begin to walk in joyful sobriety! When those slandered refuse to bite back those who feel so inadequate share the gospel!

[44:13] When mothers lay down their lives brings glory to God it pleases him and glorifies him so live now I pray in the confidence that your past present future are secure in Christ Christ is your past wonderfully Christ is your present Christ is your future not nearly these guys God God God God God God God God help us Father in heaven we cast ourselves onto you and rest in you yet again thank you for these words thank you for trying to scratch the surface of them find a few things Lord I pray that there's anyone in here that's not in Christ they would run to him and take rest in him refuge in him for the forgiveness of their sins and for the power of the new life

[45:17] Lord help us to abide in you and to bear much fruit for your glory we thank you in Christ's name you've been listening to a message given by Walt Alexander lead pastor of Trinity Grace Church in Athens Tennessee for more information about Trinity Grace please visit us at trinitygraceathens.com